Law 11340 (The Maria da Penha Law) of 7 August 2006

Brief Description

Innovations of the Law
• Classifies and defines domestic and family violence against women.
• Establishes the forms of domestic violence against women as physical, psychological, sexual, patrimonial and moral.
• Determines that domestic violence against women is not dependant on the woman’s sexual orientation.
• Determines that the woman can only renounce the denunciation before a judge.
• Pecuniary sentences are forbidden (payment of fines or basic food baskets).
• The delivery of the legal notice by the woman to the aggressor is forbidden.
• The woman victim of domestic violence will be informed of the procedural acts, especially of the prison entry and exit of the aggressor.
• The woman must be accompanied by attorney or public defender in all the procedural acts.
• Removes from the special criminal courts (law 9.099/95) the competence to judge crimes of domestic violence against women.
• Alters the penal procedure code to allow the judge to decree preventive custody when there is risk to the physical or psychological integrity of the woman.
• Alters the law of penal executions to allow the judge to determine the obligatory attendance of the aggressor in recovery and re-education programs.
• Determines the creation of special courts of domestic and family violence against women with civil and penal competence to address family issues derived from violence against women.
• If the domestic violence is committed against a woman with special needs, the sentence will be increased by 1/3.

Police Authority
• Includes a specific chapter on assistance provided by the police authority in cases of domestic violence against women.
• Allows the police authority to arrest the aggressor in the act in case of any of the forms of domestic violence against the woman.
• Registers the police report and establishes the police inquiry (with the testimonies of the victim, the aggressor, the witnesses and documentary and investigation evidence).
• Forwards the police inquiry to the Prosecutor’s Office
• May request that the judge determine several urgent measures, within 48 hours, to protect the woman in a situation of violence.
• Requests that the judge determine preventive custody based on the new law that alters the penal procedure code.

Judicial process
• The judge may determine, within 48 hours, urgent protective measures (suspension of the aggressor’s license to carry weapon, removal of the aggressor from the home, keeping distance from the victim, among others), depending on the situation.
• The judge of the court of domestic and family violence against women is competent to appreciate the crime and the cases that involve family issues (alimony, separation, custody of children etc.).
• The Prosecutor’s Office will present charges to the judge and may propose sentences ranging from 3 months to 3 years of detention; the final decision and sentence belong to the judge